Faculty & Programs

As an embryo develops, tissues bend into complex three-dimensional shapes that lead to organs. Epithelial cells are the building blocks of this process, forming, for example, the outer layer of skin. They also line the blood vessels and organs of all animals.

These cells pack together tightly. To accommodate the curving that occurs during embryonic development, it has been assumed that epithelial cells adopt either columnar or bottle-like shapes.

However, a group of scientists dug deeper into this phenomenon and discovered a new geometric shape in the process.

Traditional, centralized power grids—where power is generated, transmitted and then distributed to users—is fast becoming a thing of the past. Such systems are inefficient and vulnerable to attack. In addition, renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, have led to more compact generators. For all these reasons, the future of power is power electronics-based microgrids.

A microgrid is exactly what it sounds like: a small grid. It consists of multiple distributed generators and loads and can work in both grid-connected- or autonomous- modes.

Engineering faculty at Lehigh’s P.C. Rossin College of Engineering and Applied Science are included in a consortium that was recently awarded $2.5 million by the U.S. Department of Transportation (US DOT) in its first round of funding for Regional University Transportation Centers. The multi-year grant is authorized under the Fixing America’s Surface Transportation Act or the FAST Act, the first federal law in more than a decade to provide long-term funding certainty for surface transportation infrastructure planning and investment.

Nearly 50 students will have the opportunity to attend an international microarchitecture conference, thanks to an NSF travel grant awarded to Xiaochen Guo, Rossin assistant professor in electrical and computer engineering at Lehigh University.

If immunotherapy—the harnessing of the body’s immune system—can destroy cancer cells, as has been demonstrated, why not try to trigger the body’s immune system to battle deadly bacteria?

That question drives Marcos Pires’ pursuit of what he calls bacterial immunotherapy or immunobiotics—using the human immune system’s powerful mechanisms of preventing entry and colonization of pathogens to defeat the deadliest, antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Steven McIntosh wants to transform the way ammonia is produced. He hopes to create a viable alternative to the conventional method, which uses massive amounts of energy and emits harmful carbon dioxide. He’s exploring a sustainable electrochemical method to efficiently drive the chemical reaction that produces ammonia.

According to Eric P.S. Baumer, an assistant professor of computer science and engineering who studies human-computer interaction, society’s entanglement with social media is more complicated than it may appear. His new research takes a fine-grained look at Facebook use and non-use, using a more nuanced approach than has previously been utilized.

NSF CAREER Award supports Lehigh professor Nick Strandwitz’s vision of the transistor of the future

Cache, as the saying goes, is king

As you waste your lunch hour scrolling through cat videos, snarky celebrity-bashing memes, and videos from your niece's third birthday party, for just a moment consider the majesty of the system behind the screen that enables such lightning-fast access to literally everything under the sun.

NSF supports effort to enable academic researchers of every variety to find the data they need

There was a time—not that long ago—when the phrases "Google it" or "check Yahoo" would have been interpreted as sneezes, or a perhaps symptoms of an oncoming seizure, rather than as coherent thoughts.

Today, these are key to answering all of life's questions.